Last week, I was among a group of friends and commented on the fact that someone had removed a sticker from their microwave. I used the word "mic" to abbreviate microwave, and people thought I was talking about a microphone. This made me wonder if anyone else actually says that or if my mixed word usage (I'm from New Jersey, but have been living in California for 6+ years) resulted in an original abbreviation.

I'm pretty sure I have been abbreviating microwave this way for quite a while, though. Is it an East Coast thing? Is it a personal thing? I googled for it and checked WordReference, but mic is basically an abbreviation for microphone any way you slice it, it would seem.

So is this a regionalism that others share or is it an abbreviation with low general comprehension?

@David Schwartz: I do hear that, but you certainly can't call the microwave a "zapper", 'cos that word's already been co-opted for the tv remote control. And the lamp thingy that zaps flying pests with a high voltage arc (which kinda puts me off zapping stuff I might be eating! :)
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FumbleFingersJan 3 '12 at 3:50

I am from the West-Midlands region of England and it was very common when I was growing up. Unfortunately, I cannot cite anything for you; I always simply accepted it as being a very dialectic thing. Still, I can definitely confirm that it is used beyond your locale.
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KarlJan 3 '12 at 8:16

6 Answers
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Searching for "heat it in the mic" (in quotes) on Google comes up with a number of results, most of them of the forum/blog variety. I think this is evidence enough to show that mic is in use as an abbreviation for microwave, particularly (as you'd expect) in casual contexts.

As I've never heard it used before and have lived in many different US states, I'm inclined to say it's quite dialectical. Which dialect, though, I'm not sure.

I've never heard of "mic" as a shortened form of "microwave". I have seen it used for "microphone" many times, particularly on audio equipment, where space is at a premium.

Interestingly, there's a disagreement in the audio community (at least in the US east coast area) about whether we should talk about an "open mic" or an "open mike". "Mic" sounds like "mick" when you say it, but you refer to a "mike-ro-phone", not a "mick-ro-phone". There's an argument that "mic" violates English spelling rules, but this is somewhat specious since we're talking about a language where every rule has exceptions - often many of them. (For more information on why "mic" is incorrect, have a look at this entertaining tirade.)

Merriam-Webster lists "mic" as short for microphone, Micah, or methyl isocyanate. The Online Etymology Dictionary lists it as a shortened form of microphone. Cambridge US and British concur. Pulling out the big gun: The Oxford English Dictionary lists, under "mic", the meaning of "microphone". The definition for "microwave" doesn't mention any abbreviations (but the definition for "microphone" also doesn't list any.)

I had a similar experience a few weeks ago. The users of the term "mike" are from a small town in Northern Wisconsin, yet both an immediate neighbor and fellow badger claim that they have never heard this usage before.